The Eighth Tribe, 1975 (2. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-12-01 / 12. szám
Page 8 THE EIGHTH TRIBE December, 1975 Elizabeth was to others full of tenderness and charity. Her husband set no bounds to her liberality, yet was she ever short of money. Several times, when his court was visited by foreign princes or ambassadors, Elizabeth could not appear before them, because she had given away all her rich garments to the poor: this was with her a constant practice. Elizabeth is called “Patroness of the Poor.” Her whole life shows how truly she deserved the title; her affection for them was constantly expressed, and she left her stately castly at Wartburg to visit them in their own wretched homes. At home she still thought of the poor; she spun for them with her maidens; and often got coarse food prepared for herself, that she might know, by personal experience, how they fared. Lewis permitted his wife to build a hospital on the slope leading to the castle of Wartburg. Twenty-eight sick or infirm persons were admitted within its walls, and were daily visited by Elizabeth, who loved to bring them food herself, and thus spare them the trouble of climbing up the steep path to the castle. She often went down to the town on similar errands of charity; and, to shun observation, generally took a narrow and dangerous path, still called Break-knee. There is a poetical legend told by the now Protestant inhabitants of the spot where the good Elizabeth once lived. It is said that, as she once went down thus, loaded with meat, bread, and eggs, wrapped up in the folds of her mantle, she was met by her husband, who opened her cloak, and found it filled with red and white roses. But, in the course of a few years, a great dearth afflicted all Germany. The poor were dying by hundreds. The charity of Elizabeth was then boundless. The landgrave was away; but Elizabeth did not hesitate to distribute all of the large sums in the treasury amongst the poor. Notwithstanding the opposition of the officers of the household, she opened the granaries of her husband, and gave away all the corn: it amounted to the value of several towns and castles. She caused as much bread to be baked as the ovens of the castle would hold, and daily gave away the hot loaves to those that came to ask for them: their number often amounted to nine hundred. Elizabeth went down herself to the weak and infirm, that could not climb the steep roads leading to the castle at Wartburg. She went down to them morning and evening. She founded two new hospitals at Eisenach, and attended them with a zeal that nothing could check. The orphan children, whom she treated with peculiar tenderness, no sooner saw her, than they ran to meet her, and clung to her garments, cryirtg, “Mamma, mamma.” She made them sit around her, gave them toys, and only caressed the more tenderly those that were most afflicted. Elizabeth still found time to visit the houses of the poor. The prisoners were not forgotten by her; she visited them frequently, prayed with them, dressed the wounds their chains had inflicted, and, when they were detained for debt, bought their liberty. When Lewis returned, he clasped his wife in his arms, and kindly said, “Dear sister, how fared thy poor people this bad year?” She gently answered, “I gave to God what belonged to him, and God kept as what was mine and thine.” Hitherto Elizabeth had known much happiness. God had given her three children, honor, great wealth, and every earthly blessing, while the affection of her husband had increased rather than diminished. Heavy calamities followed this prosperity. A crusade was preparing for the year 1227, and Lewis took the cross. Elizabeth accompanied her husband to the frontiers of Thuringia, and parted from him with sad presentiments. These were sadly verified: Lewis died on his way to the Holy Land, a few months after their separation. Elizabeth was overwhelmed with sorrow; nor did she suffer from grief alone. The two brothers of the landgrave, to whose care she was entrusted, resolved to despoil her and her children of their inheritance. They cruelly drove them from the castle, and ordered that no house should open to receive them. Of all those whom Elizabeth had succored, a poor priest alone ventured to give her a night’s lodging. Elizabeth’s spirit rose with her trials; and she was able to thank God in the midst of her sufferings. Her relatives at length took up her cause; and she went to reside with one of her aunts. Her uncle wished her to marry the emperor Frederic II. who desired the match ardently; but she refused with modest firmness. Her sorrow for her husband had not yet subsided. She was afterwards restored to the castle of Wartburg, from which she had been expelled. The remaining years of her life were filled with an heroic charity that almost surpasses belief. She was now rich, but her wealth belonged only to the poor. She lived in a little house, and earned her livelihood by spinning wool; while thousands subsisted on her bounty, and the sick were cared for in the hospital which she had founded immediately on her arrival. She died in all the transports of a heavenlv piety, in the year 1231; being then little more than twenty-four. A burning fever seized and carried her off quickly. Several times during the course of her illness, she was heard to sing with ravishing sweetness. Rarely has a life so varied and so brief been graced by so many virtues.
